The Ascendancy of Soul’s Whoness: How Ibn Sīnā Upended Ancient Greek Paradigms on Human Soul

In contemporary literature, the apparent lack of coherence in Ibn Sīnā's (d. 1037/427) metaphysical insights, specifically on human soul, has rendered it arduous to delineate his proper intellectual originality in a systematic form. This study excavates a foundational tenet of Ibn Sīnā's theory regarding individual human souls. In The Book of Healing (Kitāb al-shifāʾ), particularly within its Metaphysics (Kitāb al-ilāhiyyāt), I contend that he ascribes metaphysical precedence to existing humans in their individualitywhat I referred to as whonessover essences and intellectual notions, the realm of whatness (māhiyyah). Contrary to the late Platonist framework, on the one hand, the Baghdadi philosopher assigns the individual human soul a higher status than essences and universals in terms of oneness, existence, and truth. On the other hand, he astutely refrained from endorsing the Aristotelian hylomorphic theory and its portrayal of instantiated universals. Moreover, this whoness realm, enshrouded by ontological mystery, incorporates some metaphysical notions initially developed for the divine paradigm.